The Sacrificial Pawn Group / Shiraishi Plays in the Water
Withdrawing her scrutinizing gaze, Tsubaki Sakurako nodded. The long night, with her all alone, was indeed a bit boring.
Aoyama was a handsome man, after all, so she had no reason to reject him.
"Good."
Having received an affirmative answer, Aoyama went behind the Kamuro who was sitting on the rock, ambushed her from behind, picked her up, and sat down with her.
To conserve the limited supply points, most of the "stools" in the base are made of relatively flat stones of varying sizes.
Aoyama rested his head on Kamuro's shoulder and saw what Kamuro had just been doing.
"Katsuragi and his team are really fierce."
Two leaderboards are displayed on the lit tablet screen.
One was a ranking of the bottom ten students, and there were six students from Class 2-A, all of whom scored zero.
Starting tomorrow, the instructions to move to a specific area will be given four times, and groups that fail to move according to the instructions two or more times will be penalized with points deductions.
The movement points that Kamuro got this morning have already been deducted.
"I heard from Ishida that Katsuragi and the others are exhausted." Relaxing, Kamuro nestled into Aoyama's arms, letting him hold him.
As the sixth member of the Aoyama Group, Ishida made several trips to supply the three members that day, making him the student most familiar with their condition.
As the top group in the top ten rankings, Katsuragi and his two companions were either rushing around or taking exams, completely being treated like dirt by Sakayanagi.
With an intelligence advantage, the advantage of being all male, and the fact that they had won first place in the designated area movement this morning, Katsuragi and his two teammates scored 53 points today.
They pulled away the second-place four-person first-grade group, gaining almost half the points.
The third group was a four-person group led by Kiryuin. Whether it was luck or not, Third-Year Class A obtained two special cards.
One is a trial, the other is recruitment.
Fourth place goes to the four-person group of Ichinose and his friends.
Ayanokoji, whom Aoyama was somewhat interested in, was not on the top ten list, and it was unclear what he was doing.
"Anyway, I'll be fully recovered tomorrow, that's what young people are like."
Kamuro scoffed, "Why are you being so old-fashioned? As if you're not one of them."
"Because I'm a mature adult now, and so is Masumi."
With a chuckle, Aoyama rubbed his cheek against Kamuro's blushing face.
It was 8 PM, late at night, when everything was quiet.
The first instruction to move to the designated area is at 7:00 AM, meaning students need to get up and prepare no later than 6:30 AM.
If you don't want to rush, it's best to get up at six o'clock.
"Come on, I'll deal the cards first."
Now that most of the students who had to take exams had gone into their tents to sleep, only five students remained by the campfire.
Around a small table, Aoyama began demonstrating how to deal cards with one hand to Shiraishi and the others.
"You think you can?"
Morishita clapped expressionlessly, Kamuro's face darkened after picking up the cards.
She had the Joker in her hand right at the start of the game; it's unclear whether Aoyama did it on purpose.
"After you draw the Shiki cards, remember to shuffle your hand again. This guy has a photographic memory and can remember all the cards Kamuro Tsubaki Sakurako her.
The popular game of Old Maid was naturally played by everyone during the free time of the Saturday study session.
However, it wasn't long before Aoyama, who had never been defeated, was discovered to be secretly memorizing cards.
"Masumi, why are you doing this to me?" Aoyama said, feigning grievance and acting silly.
"And Shiraishi, when you have the Joker card for him to draw, the best thing to do is to shuffle it and close your eyes."
The difficult task for Aoyama was not yet finished. Kamuro looked at Shiraishi, who was sitting next to Aoyama according to the seating order drawn by lottery.
In that case, Aoyama's excellent memory and observation skills would be useless.
"Understood, Kamuro."
Shiraishi brushed her blonde hair behind her ear and gave a gentle smile, then looked at Morishita, who was sitting above her.
"If you get a joker, remember to tell me which one it is, and I'll make sure Aoyama -kun draws it."
"No problem." Morishita with a slight smile.
Before the game even started, Aoyama became the target.
Chapter 344 The Abandoned Pawns
"Does anyone want to go for a walk with me?"
The next morning, around 8 a. m., Aoyama asked the girls who remained at the campsite.
He spent the whole afternoon fishing yesterday, but he doesn't want to fish anymore today.
"I'm not going." Seeing that Shiraishi and the others were all looking at him, Kamuro shook his head and refused.
Rather than walking with Aoyama, she now prefers to go fishing to increase the food supply for the class.
"I just want to slack off."
"I'm going to be in charge of leading the class."
After Kamuro finished speaking, Morishita and Tsubaki Sakurako also expressed their refusal.
"I hope Aoyama won't retaliate by leaving me all alone on the side of the road," Shiraishi joked with a laugh, indicating that he was interested in going.
However, it all depends on Aoyama's opinion.
If Aoyama jokingly says he really wants revenge, she will gracefully back down.
"Do I look like such a petty person? Besides, he tricked me last night." Aoyama started packing the supplies onto his back.
Having a cute girl with you is naturally better than being alone. Besides, last night, Shiraishi deliberately held onto the Joker in his hand during the first round; otherwise, there would be no point in Tsubaki Sakurako and the others participating in the game.
After preparing and bidding farewell to the few people left behind, the two left the Base and began to travel along the foot of the mountain.
"This can't go on any longer."
Meanwhile, Horikita and his group missed out on another project that had already begun.
This means that their previous twenty minutes of travel had been completely fruitless.
After several hours of hard work, their group was not only still in fourth place, but the gap between them was also widening.
"I suggest we activate the sacrificial pawns group." Ichinose looked at Horikita was speaking.
They had anticipated the problems caused by the lack of timely updates to the research project information and devised a solution before disembarking.
However, due to the huge cost, they do not plan to use them unless they are at a disadvantage. After all, the "discard team" is a team that treats its members as expendable resources, and it is inevitable that they will fall to the bottom five.
Six penalty Halving Card, plus three million personal points, are exchanged for a chance to get into the top three.
Moreover, even if we get third place, the reward of 100 Class Points is only 30 points for each of the three classes.
"I agree with Ichinose's suggestion."
Not wanting to lose, Kanzaki immediately nodded in agreement. As for Hirata, who was left out, although he felt it was a bit unfair, he knew the others wouldn't listen to him.
Using pre-prepared walkie-talkies, Sudo's team and Shibata's team received scouting missions almost simultaneously.
After returning to the starting point and renting a batch of walkie-talkies, they will form a hexagonal formation and roam the area near Ichinose and the others to gather intelligence.
"Aoyama, Shiraishi."
"Snort."
On the only road leading to the other side of the mountains, Aoyama and Shiraishi encountered first-year students for the first time. One of them had a fierce conflict with Aoyama, and the other was a member of the Student Council.
"I'm sorry to have troubled you, Nanase." Aoyama smiled at the polite child.
As for why he said he was making things difficult for Nanase, Hosen naturally understood.
Hosen crossed his arms and said, "Ha, a coward who doesn't dare to compete."
More than a day has passed since the exam started, and six students from Class 2-A still occupy the bottom ten spots. With one of those six being Aoyama, anyone with a bit of sense knows what Class 2-A is up to.
They believed that Aoyama could carry five opponents single-handedly, but they didn't believe that Aoyama could carry five opponents single-handedly and still win first place in the group.
In other words, most students believed that Aoyama had given up on this Special Exam.
"You dog who eats shit, you've even picked up a mouse?" Aoyama started attacking directly, "You idiot who can't even manage your own class, where do you get the nerve to spout nonsense in front of me?"
He had a partial grasp of the second grade, while Hosen had a partial grasp of his own class.
The two are clearly not on the same level.
"Don't think I won't hit you just because you're the Student Council President." Unexpectedly, Aoyama started with vulgar language, sounding even more like a thug than him. Hosen was stunned for a moment before angrily speaking up.
"So, if you're too scared to fight, what are you barking about like a dog?"
"You'll have your chance sooner or later, just you wait."
With a dark expression, Hosen glanced at Nanase, who showed a surprised look, then left after uttering a harsh threat.
The more Aoyama provoked him, the more afraid he became that Aoyama had someone hiding in the shadows secretly recording the incident.
Not only that, if he were to fight Aoyama, that traitor Nanase would definitely not be on his side. Once Aoyama was at a disadvantage, he would likely make a move.
After luring Nanase to an unmonitored area to ambush her once, he experienced firsthand Nanase's exaggerated, un-girlish combat abilities.
"I didn't expect Aoyama- senpai to be so good at swearing." With a somewhat helpless smile, Nanase bowed her head in apology and then chased after Hosen.
Interestingly, her gaze lingered on Shiraishi for a moment.
Did you ask Nanase what mission she accepted?
After Nanase's figure gradually disappeared into the distance, Aoyama asked Shiraishi a question.
As far as he knew, Nanase and Shiraishi were schoolmates and had both received instruction from someone named Shirogane- sensei.
The Shiraishi's task is to be an observer who does nothing, and there aren't that many observers.
"No, unauthorized contact is a violation."
"I see. Let's continue."
Not paying too much attention to the matter, Aoyama did not instruct Shiraishi to investigate for him, and continued to record the journey to the Uninhabited Island.
The challenge of forming a team will only appear on the fourth day, giving him more than a day to wander around and memorize the map of the entire Uninhabited Island.
"I've finally found you, Aoyama."
At noon, when Aoyama and Shiraishi found a shady spot and started a fire to cook lunch, an Ibuki suddenly appeared in the jungle.
A day and a half after the Uninhabited Island Exam, Ibuki still seemed full of energy.
"What do you want?" Judging from Ibuki's tone, Aoyama guessed that she hadn't found him by chance; she had probably tracked him down using GPS.
"I ran into Horikita this morning. Horikita said you're free and will help me with sparring to improve my fighting skills."
Ibuki's somewhat childlike face was full of excitement, "It took me three minutes to find you."
Using a tablet, students can spend one point to view the GPS location of any other student.
In other words, it took Ibuki three tries to find him.
That Suzune, you're trying to pass the buck to me, huh? Just wait and see how I punish you next time.
While inwardly cursing his inhuman sister, Aoyama scratched his head, but ultimately decided to leave Ibuki, this troublesome girl, behind.
In fact, he was quite free, and since he didn't want to disturb Sakura while they were taking their exams, spending some time with Ibuki, this cute girl, was a good option.
"Let's eat first, I bet you haven't eaten yet either." Aoyama took out another disposable bowl.
"I have the ingredients I won yesterday."
Taking off the backpack from behind her, Ibuki took out her spoils of war.
She, Ibuki Mio, doesn't freeload.
Chapter 345 Shiraishi Playing in the Water
Two went out, three returned.
Upon seeing Aoyama return with Ibuki by his side, Kamuro couldn't help but sigh.